Miriam will always be remembered with these quotations
Former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
“Fungus Face!’”
Santiago said to then Laguna Rep. Nereo Joaquin when he criticized her in a privilege speech in 1992 over the arrest of foreign pedophiles in his district.
“That is why I’m issuing this challenge: If they get 13-0, I will have myself shot in Luneta like Jose Rizal.”
She said in Filipino should the proadministration People Power Coalition sweep the May 14, 2001, senatorial election
“I lied!”
She said with a laugh when reminded about her bold declaration on April 23, 2001, that she would jump out of a plane without a parachute if police succeeded in arresting ousted President Joseph Estrada
“I am irate. I am foaming at the mouth. I’m homicidal. I’m suicidal. I’m humiliated, debased, degraded. And not only that, I feel like throwing up to be living my middle years in a country of this nature. I am nauseated. I spit in the face of Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban and his cohorts in the Supreme Court.”
She said after her name was removed from the short list of candidates for Chief Justice on Dec. 4, 2006.
“I eat death threats for breakfast!”
She said as commissioner of immigration and deportation
“I charge this private prosecutor with contempt of this impeachment court!’”
Santiago to then private prosecutor Vitaliano Aguirre II, who admittedly covered his ears while being lectured by the former during the impeachment trial of then Chief Justice Renato Corona on Feb. 29, 2012
“This man, contrary to logic and common sense, hopes to evade criminal prosecution and public outrage over his plunder, by resurrecting campaign dirt against me which are over 21 years old! Dream on, old man, a.k.a. Tanda!”
Santiago to then Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, whom she accused of committing seven sins in her privilege speech on Dec. 4, 2013
“I have cancer. I told God I am ready, but He was never ready.”
Santiago in her campaign at her alma mater, University of the Philippines Visayas, on April 13
“Cardinal Rosales on my appeal has already said he will not excommunicate me. Otherwise, I will risk embarrassment during my wedding anniversary when I attempt to receive communion. He’s not going to deny me. I guess he’ll turn a blind eye. Besides I’ll be so covered with makeup, I’ll be unrecognizable.”
Santiago, coauthor of the Senate version of reproductive health bill, on qualms about her advocacy of the controversial bill at the expense of her renewal of marital vows in a Catholic church
“I have said it before and I will say it again: I will never quit, I will never stop, I will never withdraw. I owe it to the Filipino people who believe in my leadership and who yearn for long-overdue reforms.”
Santiago in a statement prior to a street party staged by her supporters in Quezon City on May 7
“This is what I promise: Once I become the President, all the people who stole the people’s money shall be sent promptly to brand-new jails. They can choose their jail. There’s the ordinary, first-class or business class. But they will all be jailed.”
Santiago in her campaign with running mate Bongbong Marcos in Batac, Ilocos Norte on Feb. 9. Compiled by Inquirer Research
Source: Inquirer Archives
